What YOU can do to get better wedding photos...

Pre Wedding - Choosing your photographer

TRUST

Trusting your wedding photographer is a must. If you have done your research and chosen correctly (not just based on price) than you should be 100% comfortable and confident with your wedding photographer.

We make sure we catch up with all our couples before the wedding to ensure we have discussed their thoughts and vision for their wedding. This means you can enjoy the day knowing that your chosen photographer is capturing everything perfectly.

Know your style

This one can be hard for a lot of couples. Most couples automatically start talking about locations for their photos "where are we going to go for our photos?". If a couple asks us this I answer "honestly, I don't know yet! once I get to know you guys more we can work on that"

Your style could be romantic, fun, a little quirky, a lot quirky etc.. which obviously leads to very different locations.. A great way to work out your style is to look at photos on Instagram / Facebook and find out which ones you are drawn to the most and fell that represents you.

On the Wedding Day...

BE FLEXIBLE

Planning is fantastic… but… weddings don't always go to plan. In fact, they actually very rarely do! So when it comes to photography, be flexible. As much as you have dreamed about an image under "that tree", if the conditions aren't right, the light is all wrong or for whatever reason… it's not worth forcing the location. If your photographer sees better light on the day and suggests a different location, roll with it.

Hot tip - If your photographer is getting excited, it means they have seen some amazing light… let them shoot in it, they know what they are doing :)

BE YOURSELVES

Honesty is great for photos. Don't try to be someone else just because you have seen images that you love on a blog. They are someone else's wedding images, find your own wedding images… being yourselves and finding a photographer that can bring out your personalities will make your wedding images unique. It will make your wedding images yours.

Listen to your photographer for direction but then relax and try and forget the camera is there… During your wedding photos is not the time to get all self-conscious and make silly faces etc because you feel embarrassed. Be in the moment, think about each other, think about the day and what it means to you rather than the fact you are in front of a camera. A great wedding photographer should be able to make you relaxed in front of the camera, this is a big part of what we do!

PREP YOUR BRIDAL PARTY

Ok, this is a big one and maybe a little controversial. Ask photographers what the hardest part of the day is and if they answer honestly, they will usually reply with "the bridal party". Don't get me wrong, our sisters, brothers and closest friends are great… they just need to know that these images are yours, not there's. You don't need to recreate an image just because your maid of honor had one similar at her wedding earlier in the year, let that be her image.

Talk to your Bridal Party about the style of photos you want. Tell them what your photographers style is. If you have hired a more natural style photographer that takes more photojournalistic (no posing) images than your bridal party need to know this so they are not always thinking what they are meant to be doing. They are just meat to be enjoying the day and being themselves.

Time on a wedding day can also be eaten up very quickly when trying to get 6,8, 10 or even more people to move for photos. One great option to help with this is to do all the bridal party photos straight away at the start of the Bridal Session and then let them relax, let them drink with the guests and go off with your photographer, just the three of you. One thing that a lot of couples don't allow for is some time alone on the wedding. We always suggest to our couples that we allow at least 30mins where it is just them so there are no distractions just you and your partner to be with each other on your wedding day. This is such a special time of the day for our couples!

To chat more about YOUR wedding and to see if we are the right photographers for you fill out the form below...

The Follans are based out of the Gold Coast, Queensland in Australia, and specialise in Wedding Photography & Film in the Byron Bay, Gold Coast, Brisbane, Sunshine Coast & Sydney regions of Australia and are also booked for International Destination Weddings shooting weddings in places such as Fiji, Hawaii, Bali, Santorini Greece and New York.